Today’s weather was absolutely beautiful and only made todays cyclocross race even more enjoyable. It was my first race in over a year and it was a blast. It was the first race in the NYCROSS.com series, which is a race series thrown by a team right here in Albany, with the races all over the greater Capital District. The course was incredibly laid out with perfect technical and power sections and a bunch of really fun features.

My race went very well. I’ve literally only ridden my bike twice before today’s race and found myself racing with a group within the race itself. Once I found my rhythm and a comfortable pace I was able to ride away from the group and finish with a good amount of time on them. I didn’t place well but it was a total success all things considered.

If this looks fun to you come out to either race or drink a bunch of beer and heckle the racers!

Last night, our friends at Metroland proved they know how to throw a party – more specifically a party on a boat – hosting friends and music fans alike aboard the Dutch Apple Cruise line.

The hired talent for the night was Eastbound Jesus, who played a special 2-hour set from the bottom deck of the boat, which you could hear (and feel) the crowd’s reaction and participation from the upper deck. Prior to last night, I’ve only heard the band’s name and hadn’t the slightest clue what their music was like, but judging from their set last night, they are a country rock band with a modern feel (complete with banjo), as well have good ole fashioned high energy, enthusiasm and multi-instrumental talent.

Even if you were like us and weren’t remotely familiar with the music, the fact alone that people were singing (and chanting) every word alongside the band members makes it that much easier to enjoy a live performance of any capacity.

Adding to the local spirit and taste which one would expect on a Metroland-hosted boat party, Lark Street’s Crisan donated plentiful platters of baked goods and the featured beer on draft was from Adirondack Brewing Company, which is based out of Lake George. We tried the Dirty Blonde Ale while reading Metroland’s Albany Bucket List, which was featured in last week’s issue and compiles must-do’s for the Albany area. For someone native to the area, there’s still much I haven’t done on their guide. Metroland also had a drop box on the boat for their infamous I SAW U feature, which we may or may not have had some fun with.

Overall, the cruise made for a fun night and if you haven’t been on a Dutch Apple Cruise, you have been missing out. The boat tours the Hudson from sunset into the night and the combination of good beer, music and friends makes for a great way to spend an evening outside of the norm.

MOHU Arts Festival is starting Friday October 5th. Over 100 venues, artists and arts organizations from all over the Capital District come together to show off the strength and diversity within the arts scene in this area. There will be performances, workshops, lectures, gallery openings, and tons more.

There’s a kickoff party on October 4th which all proceeds will go to support MOHU, and the festival wraps up with Drums Along the MOHU, which will take place at The Egg.

Events are up at MOHU website and will continue to be added throughout the festival. Keep watch on that site and make sure to check some of these events out!

The fall schedule has tons of performances, screenings, exhibitions, talks, concerts, all which push the boundaries of art science and technology. Some notable events include a composition performed on seven bassoons, a Norwegian dance company residency, a discussion of visual perception and much more.

If you haven’t been going to as many of these as you can, you are selling yourself short. A fair deal of them are free and the ones that aren’t are cheap!

This past Thursday, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak visited GlobalFoundries to talk about the future of Tech Valley, along side Peter Schultz, Daniel Pickett, and John Cavalier.

There was a ton of great discussion of what’s happening in this area and what needs to happen to keep things going and make Tech Valley become a big competitive force. There was a lot of focus on infrastructure being improved to keep up with the innovation as well as discussion of the importance of proximity of schools to technology company campuses. The most important to me, was the big stress on further educating employees by letting them work on their personal projects after work, with resources paid for by the companies.

This Thursday, the Metroland is throwing party, on a boat, with Eastbound Jesus. There’s not too much more to add except this is better than your current plans for Thursday, and you should not be be a hermit, and come party on a boat. They will be featuring Adirondack Dirty Blonde Ale and Adirondack Beavertail Brown Ale on draft and will also will have Adirondack Bear Naked Ale in bottles. There’s also going to be giveaways throughout the night.

You can check out what to expect by checking out a gallery from another Dutch Apple party cruise right here on KAB.

There are very few tickets left which you can get here. $10 presale, or $15 day-of. Boarding is at 6:30 and the cruise is from 7-10. The last one was super fun and I will be on the boat with a camera. Say hello, I’ll have KAB stickers!